


When She Woke

by anavoli



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 21:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4453847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anavoli/pseuds/anavoli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Annie opened her eyes, the war was over. Humanity had discovered the secrets of their origin and made peace with the titans. They were no longer trapped behind the walls, living in fear of the unknown.</p><p>But not her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When She Woke

When Annie opened her eyes, the war was over. Humanity had discovered the secrets of their origin and made peace with the titans. They were no longer trapped behind the walls, living in fear of the unknown.

But not her.

When the crystal melted away from her body, she was greeted by the sight of gritty stone walls and iron bars. She might have kept her secrets from them, but nothing comes without a price.

So she waited.

When the footsteps tapped down from the stairwell, she lifted her chin and looked Armin Arlert in the eye. He gasped, nearly dropping the papers in his hand.

“Hi,” she said, because there was nothing else to say.

He brought her water and food, sitting next to her cell as she ate. He looked different. Longer hair, taller physique, but the same curious blue eyes that were a welcome change from the still, still black.

Armin told her how humanity had won. Well, that wasn’t the word he used, but the meaning was the same. The titans had been eradicated. The horrifying truth of their origins had been brought to light. Her home had been destroyed in the fallout. She would never see her father again.

But Historia was queen, and for once the future looked a little brighter.

“They will pardon you for what you did,” Armin told her. She didn’t know if she deserved it. The end didn’t always justify the means.

When Annie stepped into the Survey Corps mess hall, boots echoing on the wooden floor, the silence was almost worse than when she was asleep. There was no Military Police logo emblazoned on her back to seperate them from her, but the distance couldn’t have been clearer. Sasha and Connie nervously averted their eyes and Jean crossed his arms and turned away.

She hadn’t forgotten Marco. She had never forgotten anyone. Not when their blood still stained the hood of her shirt.

But then Mikasa Ackerman stepped forward to offer a hand. The last time they saw the other face to face, the other girl had watched her fall.

“Welcome back.” She greeted Annie cooly, but there was no hostility left in her eyes.

She visited Reiner and Bertholdt, brought flowers to their graves. Ymir broke the news to her, and, strangely enough, was the one to comfort her when her composure finally shattered.

She was the only one left.

When Annie stood in front of the court to give her testimony, Historia sat at the podium. For the first time in her life, she was looking up to Historia. Telling her tale was hard, but whether it was the crown on her head, or the look in her eyes, she wasn’t scared to speak.

“I have failed my role as a soldier,” she confessed. “And for that, I apologize.”

Not everyone was happy with the decision to let her go. It had been the last thing Annie expected out of it all. For a long time, she had embraced the thought of a cold blade on the nape of her neck.

Instead, she is allowed to walk free, with no chains and no obligations.

When Eren Jaeger asked her to help him train, she was surprised, but agreed. He raised his fists into position, as if the last time they faced off she hadn’t tried to kill him.

She was there to laugh at Connie’s jokes, to see Sasha free of worry. “You look nice when you smile,” she told Annie.

Annie watched Jean Kirschtein become the next commander of the Survey Corps. She knew he would be a great leader, one who would bring humanity into a future outside the walls. He never quite forgave her, but she understood.

One day Armin came to her and told her that Hanji had figured out a way to take away her shifting abilities. Once and for all.

“It’s not mandatory,” he explained. “But it’s there if you want it.”

When she woke, Annie knew that redemption was never something she would be allotted in life, but when she walked out of the room that day, it felt like a second chance.


End file.
